35thstreetswarm

OK. I agree there's plenty of reason to doubt he stays healthy. But I suspect the team plans to pitch him as long as he is. Here's hoping he doesn't lose effectiveness as the season wears on.

Are you suggesting the Sox would shut him down, or that you think he'll be injured? If the former, I haven't heard any indication that the team is planning on limiting his innings, have you?

...followed by Eloy's left hamstring impailed on one of said cornstalks in left field approximately 25 minutes later.

Giving you a hard time since you freak out every time somebody bashes the Cubs. (^^^case in point)

Wow -- didn't expect that reaction, relax tiger. We did in fact play Tampa in 2008, not 2000 - feel free to look it up. If there's anything else from my post that's incorrect I'd love to hear it.

You forgot: 4-2 Giants 1917 4-2 Cubs 1906 (sorry) Also, Tampa was 2008. 2000 was Seattle: 0-3

A couple of those teams are likely not even making the playoffs, much less going all the way. I guess I can see the Rays simply because they were there last year -- but unlike most years I look around the league and just don't see a lot of teams that strike me as better positioned than the Sox, especially if we get Eloy and Robert back with a few weeks to tune up.

Who is ready, then? Aside from the Dodgers.

I'll never understand why some fans don't see that winning at a *greater rate than your competitors* against bad teams, or against middling teams, is as good an indicator of your team quality as any.

I’m hardly the first to say this, but Rodon’s problem was always health—plain and simple. I’ve always kind of assumed that if Rodon could put together a full season 100% healthy it would be a successful season from a pitching perspective. So whether to bet on Rodon was really a medical question more than a baseball one. So far so good (knocking on every wood surface I can find). I felt the same way about Kluber, though I’m now glad we didn’t make that losing bet.

The area immediately around Wrigley (“Wrigleyville”) is sterile. But “within a mile” is an enormous swath of Chicago with an infinite number of interesting places.

What’s a Southside color crew?

Ho hum, dominant victory to pad our best in mlb differential. Come on everybody, get in here—pretend we lost!

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/nbcsports/cubs-anthony-rizzo-face-of-team-now-face-vaccine-shortfall/2530922/?amp Very responsible. Team Three Percenter can’t get to 85. They just can’t get out if their own way.

Nope plenty covered both

This is covered in another thread, but there's way more to a rivalry than being in the same division, and pretending the teams' fortunes are unrelated is folly. Anyway, people root against teams all the time for all kinds of reasons, it's part of sports that nobody questions outside this context. If you say "I don't like the Lakers" or "I don't like Notre Dame" nobody says "WHY? What division is your favorite team in? I must know this information before I can decide whether you're allowed to root against them." It's only with Cub fans, and a smaller sliver Sox fans, where people have this need to make a show of their supposed indifference to the other team--and demand indifference from others--as a way of proving some kind of fan purity. It's fascinating to me.

It's so weird that people are so invested in denying a totally natural cross-town rivalry. If we just "ignored" or didn't care about our cross-town team in the same sport and league we'd be the first city/team in history to do so.

Sarcasm, guys.

Wow. Arrieta of course but I have to say I wouldn't have pegged him. Kind of on-brand for the organization, though.

Oh, Lord. Source?

Thanks for posting this.

Crazy to me that there were posters who looked at that lineup throughout this offseason and were like: "meh"

Publicly begging pitchers to come right at him might make them less likely to come right at him

At least a few executions are also in order.

This is a killer, especially when considering the cumulative effect. But I still think our ultimate success hinges on a successful return of Eloy and Robert. The timeline on that hasn't changed. If those guys return our lineup is absolutely loaded with or without Madrigal.